I'll just look at the ground
by Bestbuds55
Summary: Daryl finds out just how important family can be in life, even if it isn't exactly his family that shows him.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: Exam's are finally done and I've never been so happy. I'm heading full force into second semester and am going to be working as hard as ever. I hope to be able to keep posting things in just a fast manor (chapter a week or maybe more). I love all you guys, thanks for reading my works, and feel free to leave me a review if you have the time!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the story itself.**

Daryl looked at the ground, nit daring to even look up. He and his brother had arrived at the "campsite" a few days ago and well everyone gave Merle wide distance, they didn't bother doing that with him. That cop would walk right up and talk to him, not caring that he didn't answer, the old man would ask him to keep watch so he could have a break, the women would ask him to skin things when Merle just through the animals at them. It was so weird; he had never had people tolerate him like this, hell he could say he never had people optionally be around him before.

Then this shit happened, that Carol woman was taking the kids down to the lake so they could get cleaned up and Shane said that it wasn't exactly safe to be that far from camp and everyone's help and the chick's face just deflated. And Shane had then looked guilty (like that asshole really should), then said he'd send a guard and then it would be fine. Daryl had been to natural choice of course, cause of having a weapon that he was good with. And then he had to parade all the kids in the camp, who were groaning and complaining about having to bath. Well, the boys were anyway.

Then Carol was helping children strip off and he had to blush and look away as she stripped off her pants as well. It wasn't like she got naked or anything, but there was something about a pretty lady standing in water in her underwear and shirt that made his heart beat faster. She didn't even seem to pay attention that he was there, which was weird because most girls noticed him right away, so they could either throw themselves at him or run the opposite way. He never really questioned it, but having this chick just strip in front of him as if she didn't even know he existed hurt. _Like lower than the heart and higher than the feet kind of hurt. _

He swallowed roughly before checking the surrounding area once more to make sure that there was no danger in the area. He wasn't going to mess up the trust that these strangers had placed in him, it was a chance to stop being that younger no good Dixon hick. Weird that the world had to end for him to be able to stopped being judged like he was dirt.

Carol bent over and he felt his ears get warmer, he could just bet they were bright red. This woman was kind to everyone at camp and seemed to wait on her good for nothing husband hand and foot. He grinded his teeth every time he saw that Ed. He looked at his wife like she was a piece of meat that was around to keep him happy and his little daughter like she would be ready any day now. Daryl's skin crawled just thinking about it, no wonder that girl never seemed to say a word, she was probably terrified she'd piss her dad off and give him and excuse to get her alone.

Daryl turned slightly and saw that the group were getting dried off again and dressed. Apparently it was time to head back to the field; he hadn't realized that any amount of time had even passed yet. They were just lucky that no danger was around then, because he didn't pay attention at all. Once everyone was dressed, Carol led the front of the pack and he led the back. He couldn't believe that this was his life now, that he was being trusted to guard children now. Like three weeks ago, he would have been trusted to look at a child.

It had been a good day he concluded, that (of course) when Ed came up to him after dinner and tried to get up into his face. He wasn't able to though, considering that Daryl was taller than the short and mostly round man. That didn't stop him though, "You fucking stay away from my family! You disgusting hick, I saw the way you looked at them. I won't have you jerking off to the people in my life." He didn't even have the decency to say it quietly and just shouted it out in the middle of the camp. _Where everyone, including Carol and Sophia could hear him. _The little girl looked like she didn't know what was going on but cringed all the same when Ed raised his voice and Carol looked embarrassed that this was happening. He could only hope that she didn't believe what Ed was saying. Then, on top of all that everyone in camp was now staring at them. That Shane cop was glaring, and his brother was emerging from their tent. Which was probably the worst thing about this because Merle was probably going to mess this shit up.

Ed then pushed him back, like he was some school, lunch time bully and Daryl was the smaller kid. That didn't work, because Daryl was bigger and much stronger, which meant that Daryl didn't move at all. He ended up breathing in deeply trying to collect his thoughts, and immediately wished he hadn't because Ed smelled very strongly of alcohol. Like he hadn't showered in days and had been drinking non-stop for just as long. No wonder Ed had started this fight, he was drop dead drunk. Daryl wished he would just drop dead, and then he could just shoot him. No questions would even be asked.

Ed tried to push him again, but this time Daryl just stepped back and Ed lost his balance and end up face first into the ground. He could here Merle giggling in the background, and he could easily guess that he was high on drugs again. Shane stepped forwards before more of a "fight" broke out, and it all ended with Daryl just walking back over to his fire pit. That had been one of the most pitiful fights he had ever been in. He wasn't even really sure he could call it a fight. Shane lugged Ed back to his tent without a word though, so he counted that as a win.

And when Merle wondered back into their tent, to no doubt sleep for the next 12-16 hours, the little Sophia girl wondered her way over to his fire as well. She sat on the other side of the fire and just stared without saying anything, but smiled at him kindly. They sat in silence until Carol came over to collect her daughter for bed. He noticed that Sophia was sleeping with Lori, Shane and their boy. Probably safer for her over their anyway, Shane knew how to use a gun properly, and she was away from Ed. Carol of course, went to the same tent as Ed, and he couldn't help but wonder that if Merle wasn't there would he be brave enough to offer shelter to those two. That was a problem to worry about another day though, because as he put out the fire he noted the large clouds moving in the distance. It was going to rain hard tomorrow, for the first time since they had been in the quarry.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: I always forget just how much I miss writing if I don't do it for awhile. This is chapter two, the rainy day! I hope you all liked this chapter! Every chapter put out I feel like the world gets to stare at my baby. I hope you can find some time to review for me, because it really makes my days to see review!**

**Disclaimer: Still don't own the Walking Dead…**

Just as Daryl predicted, the sky was pouring down on them as he woke up. There was an inch of water on the ground and he felt really water logged. Probably because he'd been in the inch of water for the last few hours. That had to be one of the grossest feelings in the world to wake up to, he groaned as he pulled himself up off the ground. The rain was still falling heavily down outside, and their definitely wasn't going to be fire for today or the next few days after that until shit dried out. Everyone was going to be in a bad mood today, he could tell already.

He opened the tent, completely ignoring the still snoring Merle who was soaked in water and exited into the strong downpour that was the outside world. It was raining so hard that you could barely see in front of you. And right away, he saw that little girl of Carol's sitting in the front of his fire pit, with water running off of her at all side and she was definitely shivering. No one else was outside at all; Dale had probably abandoned his post hours ago with no one wanting to cover it due to the rain. It didn't really matter anyway; no one would be able to see three feet in front of them. Watch was completely useless at the moment. And that little girl out there alone.

He walked up beside her, and lugged her up over his shoulder; turning and walking directly back to the tent. Merle was still snoring, but he placed the girl down so that she was on top of the tire that had come off of his truck. She hadn't squeaked or said anything and now they just sat and stared in complete silence, or well, with Merles snores in the background. Then Merle sat up like an awakened bear and claimed to be going hunting, ignoring the weather completely. He knew that was his brother's code for "going to go do drugs in the woods so you don't have to see me do them" and was grateful for once that he didn't try and shoot himself up right in front of this tiny lady.

Then it was complete silent and they were staring at each other's. She sneezed and broke the silence and Daryl looked around to give her something to dry off with. Almost everything was soaked and on the ground, besides his leather jacket and a shirt that one of the woman in the camp had taken when they insisted on doing his laundry to. He had hung it up out of respect. Sophia sneezed again and he grabbed the two and handed them to her. "Change into this and tell me when you're done. You're going to freeze like that kid." He turned around, not giving her anytime to protest and then like five minutes later, she was tugging on his shirt wearing he clean shirt like a night gown. He tried not to laugh about it, but his shirt went down past her knees. The jacket just consumed her completely, and looked to be weighing her down. Jesus, did this kid ever get to eat anything, because there was no way she should be that skinny. He had heard of kids (or girls) being afraid to eat because of their fathers would make fun of and just belittle them their whole lives. He hoped that wasn't the case.

Sophia sat back down on the tire without saying a word and set her head down on her knees. Daryl stared at her until she sneezed once more, before moving to find something to dry her hair with. He ended up picking up a dry shirt that smelled more like sweat then even he certainly preferred. It would get most of the water out of her hair at least, sick kids is something that they certainly didn't need to deal with right now. He held it out to her, but she didn't make any move to take it. Just stared at him with those wide and almost fearful like eyes.

Daryl sighed deeply, shit he didn't want to be doing this for anyone at the moment. "Alright kid, you win. Just hold still and I'll dry ya hair for you." He could hardly believe that he gave in that easily, it was just so damn hard to not cave in for those bambi eyes. Which is really just weird, because he has spent most of his life shooting little bambi's in the head. Still, those thoughts didn't stop him from walking up behind her and running the shirt as gently as he could through her hair. It was freezing and drenched, but he was determined to get her dry. At least Sophia wasn't squirming or moving around at all, that made it a lot easier.

She stayed dead still in fact, he found himself checking that she was breathing twice. Open eyes didn't mean a thing in today's world; he wanted a pulse to be sure of still life. Not that people just died from sitting outside in the rain, but he didn't know much about kids and he wasn't exactly sure just how long she had been out there. Could never be too careful, of course, every time he stopped to lean over her to see if she was breathing or not, she'd suck in a breath and go absolutely still, not even daring to breathe. He felt sort of sorry for her, even in all the shit he had to go through at home, he'd never been so scared of people that he didn't let himself breathe in their presents.

When her hair was mostly dry, he hung up the shirt so it was out of the water. No need to just chuck it into a puddle, if it dried it would be nice to have something to change into no matter how bad it smelled. He made himself a reminder that as soon as the blasted rain stopped he should go and do his damn laundry. Having no clean clothes sucked worse than having to wash them by hand in the creak.

Daryl sat down not too far away from the girl, pretending to just not really paying attention to her. He wanted to see if she'd relax without his attention on her and sure enough (it took several minutes but,) she went from being stiff as a board to slightly slumped over. Not much of an improvement, but a little bit none the less. Then he let out a cough and all that progress was ruined. God damn smokers cough, why the fuck had he ever taken up smoking in the first place? It had been a stupid idea and he had decided to quit the moment those dead peoples had begun to walk, wasn't going to be able to find cigarettes in this world anyway.

Well, the calm was broken anyway, might as well talk, "Why weren't you with your mother anyway?" The girl just stared and come to think of he had never actually heard her talk. "Didn't you spend the night with that Carl boy and his parents?" She just looked at him and then down at the ground.

"Carl says Shane isn't his dad." She replied quietly and Daryl was shocked to get words out of her at all. "Can Ed not be my dad?" That was a totally innocent question and it seemed to even break through Daryl's heart. He wanted to say something, but couldn't find the words that would be right. Why was this tiny girl asking him such serious questions anyway, why was she hanging around him like he was a good person? "Look kid, Ed's always going to be your father, but that doesn't mean he is or is ever going to be your dad."

She looked at him blankly, and he could tell that she really didn't understand. Hell, he barely understood it, but it made sense to him. She'd understand it when she was older.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Well, I'm back for another chapter. Last night totally sucked, I ended up waitressing until 2 a.m. to cover my friend late night shift and then made class for 7:30. Let's just say that I'm running on absolutely nothing today. Oh well, the drunken people who come in past midnight always seem to tip really well. Hope you enjoy this chapter and can find some time to review!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own much, and certainly nothing as amazing as the walking dead! I always forgot to mention that for some reason I made Sophia like 7 in this fanfiction. Not that I actually know how old she was in the show/comic, but I felt that if she was younger there would be more of a connection opportunity between her and Daryl. **

Sophia had curled up on the tire after she was done talking to him, well, done listening to him speak anyway. He couldn't help but wonder what she had been doing out there I the rain all by herself. Then again, he knew how easy it was for a child to get lost and it wasn't exactly easy to see through this downpour of rain. Or it was just as easy to image that she had told the grimes family (who didn't actually include Shane apparently) that she was going back to her mother and they were too busy with their lives to say that that wasn't a good idea.

It would have been easy to say even if they didn't clue in that Ed was an abusive asshole, the poor girl would be soaked to the bone the very moment she stepped outside. It was also impossible to see and dangerous out there alone. They could have said all kinds of things, but they didn't. Daryl decided he would have to keep a watch over this Sophia to make sure she wasn't alone and unprotected from now on. He wondered if there had been an attack that night, would the Grimes have even remembered that she was there. It twisted his stomach to even think that she would have been kicked to the corner and left to die alone.

She was curled up on the tire now and he could hardly see her under his jacket. Just a top of a head sticking up from underneath. It was kind of cute. The image was ruined when he heard faint yell from not that far away. Considering the Dixon's tent was the farthest away from almost everyone, it wasn't exactly hard to image where the yell had come from. Carol's tent was at the edge of the field, closest to his and placed up against a tree. Stupid thing for him to do, if they needed to run at any point in time all he did was take out an available exit.

He looked at Sophia sleeping one more time, before heading out in the rain. At that moment he knew in his mind that leaving that little girl there all alone wasn't a good thing, but found he had to figure out why shouting was happening this early in the morning. Most people would even be up for another few hours and if they had been able to see the sun today, it probably would have just been coming up. He had always been an early raiser, believing that the best hunting hours where the early morning ones.

He peaked into Carol and Ed's tent, to check on them. They had been quiet since that one yell, but he told himself in today's dangerous world you couldn't be too careful. Instead of danger, he got an eyeful. Carol was naked and crying, spread eagle he couldn't help but note. Ed was there jerking off next to her and had one hand tugging what looked to be painfully on her left breast. She was trying not to move, trying not to breath. He could see what the shout had been about as well; Ed had ripped open her shirt from the looks of it.

He gritted his teeth and Ed caught notice of him standing there, Daryl's stomach turned when Ed grinned at him. He pulled on Carol harder and Daryl had to look away as he noticed the bruises all over Carol's beaten body. He wanted nothing more than to storm in there and stop it, but he was afraid the people of the camp would only kick him and his brother out. That would leave both Carol and Sophia alone with this guy, and that was something he certainly didn't want.

He took a deep breath and stepped away from the tent and headed back towards his. He tried to shake the images of a crying broken Carol on the ground out of his head, but he found himself unable to. By the time he got back to his tent he was drenched, but at least Sophia was still sleeping. He didn't have anything else dry, but was able to scope out some clothes that were definitely Merle's to change into. It was a lot better than nothing. He mentally noted to do Merle's laundry along with his own later, as an unofficial thank you for the borrow.

He tidied up the tent, noticing just how much of a mess it had been. Not a great environment to have a kid in. Not that Sophia was planning on staying here or anything, he was just thinking that it was a lot safer for her to be here than anywhere else. It would be a good option for her if she needed that other option. He prayed to god that she wouldn't ever need that other option.

Sophia was still out like a light by the time he was done, and it was still pouring out. She had even slept through all the noise of moving things, and at one point he had picked up and moved the tire that she was curled up on. It was pretty obvious to him that she hadn't slept that night at all. He wondered why that had been, if she hadn't been able to sleep while she was at the Grimes, then why would she be able to sleep while she was here? It didn't make any sense and he knew exactly how scary or brutish he looked. No little girl should feel safe around him, and should know enough to avoid him like the plague.

He sat down quietly and turned his attention away from the girl sleeping in his coat and stared out into the rain. He had to figure out what to say to Carol when the rain stopped. He could only hope that Ed didn't tell her he'd seen them. And then on top of that fact, he had to figure out how to explain why Sophia had been in his tent, wearing pretty much only his shirt none the less. God, this was going to look bad on so many levels and he wasn't good at explaining thing on top of all that. How did he get himself into these shit situations?


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's note: I went to the movie's last weekend with some friends and saw American Hustle. I might be in love with Jeremy Renner, so being able to stare at him certainly made me love the movie. Excited about the walking dead finally being back on though! Always makes my week to be able to see a new episode out when I finally have time to watch it. Is it sad that it's usually Wednesday for I can sit down without interruptions to watch it? Oh well, life isn't going to slow down any right now. If you have the time to review, I would love you forever!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the story itself.**

The rain stopped before Sophia woke up. And the moments after it stopped Carol was out looking for her daughter. (Aka heading toward tent Grimes where she was suppose to be)Daryl had the thought to intercept her before she reached the tent. That would be a big round of panic that he really didn't want any part of and was glad to be able to avoid. Of course, it wasn't exactly a _good_ or _kind_, look he got from Carol when he informed her that her daughter was asleep in his tent. It was more frightened, cautious and afraid, or maybe that was just the way Carol was, he couldn't really tell.

Still, he understood the implications and just how young her little girl was and what she was dealing with everyday at the home perspective. Carol slightly followed him back to the tent and he stopped outside to watch Carol pop her head in at her daughter then walk back out and turn to him with a smile. "Thank you for making sure she got dry and didn't wander off on her own." Carol had a quiet yet still very sincere voice, it was calming. Suddenly he felt kind of shy, she was just grateful that her daughter had been safe and dry, instead of mad at him for having her daughter in his tent. This wasn't what he had expected, and he felt happy that they hadn't had to get into a fight.

"I saw her standing out there when I woke up in the pouring rain, didn't really have anything for her to change into so she wearing one of my shirts. Sorry about that." He looked at the ground not wanting to meet her eyes anymore. Carol smiled at him sweetly and even placed her hand comfortingly and Daryl let himself have a moment to think about just how soft and small that hand was. He tried hard not to think about what he'd seen Ed doing to her hours earlier. She definitely wouldn't be so kind or forgiving then. She wouldn't want anything to do with him then.

She thanked him once more before going into the tent to be with her daughter, and Daryl realized that it would now be awkward to go into his tent. Not good because he left his cross bow in there as well. At that thought he nearly hit himself, forget that in this world anything could happen and he should keep a weapon on him, he just left a lethal weapon that (was probably) loaded and ready to be shot alone with a small child. Forget that she had been asleep; if she had gotten hurt it would have been entirely his fault. Shit, he was a terrible person. He just endangered a tiny girl who had placed trust in him. Daryl kicked at the ground for awhile outside of his tent before Shane interrupted him.

"Hey Daryl, if you're not busy today, could you take the children down to the lake and set them up for fishing? I heard what a big hit you were last time." Daryl looked up at him blankly and somewhat confused. He had done nothing involving contact with anyone, and hadn't even payed attention to the surrounds, everyone had been lucky no one got hurt. "Course, I'll send Carol with you again. It'll be good for her to be away from that Ed of her's." Daryl nodded at that, and was a little surprised that he wasn't the only one who picked up on that. He wasn't exactly happy to have to deal with all the kids (there was really only 4) but he could deal with it for a few hours. And letting the children fish would be productive, even though they probably would catch much. It would be a quiet activity, and he imaged Sophia would probably enjoy it.

Daryl nodded at Shane, how still stared at him as though he was waiting for an actually answer. Which, it wasn't hard to suppose that he was, it just that Daryl didn't really expect people to care if he actually talked to him. "Yeah, I can do that if we have 'nough rods. Can go after lunch, when things are a bit drier." Shane smiled at him and clapped him on the arm, Daryl wondered if he had lost a brother or someone he was really used to having around all the time, he seemed to be somewhat lonely. It was kind of sad, not that he really cared. "I'll go tell the kids, they'll be really excited."

Daryl tried not to think about underlining tones to that Carl had been bugging him about wanting to fish, or that he just wanted no kids around so he could peg Lori for awhile without a chance of being interrupted. Still, he was considerate enough to send Carol with him, so Shane was alright in his books. After Daryl didn't answer again for several minutes Shane nodded and was still smiling, before walking away. No doubt to tell Lori that they had that alone time that they wanted today, but whatever because he was going to be the one to tell Sophia and Carol. They still hadn't left his tent so he imagined that Carol was just letting Sophia sleep peacefully, or at least, as peacefully as one could sleep on top of a tire.

He laughed a little bit about that before reentering his tent to see Carol moving about and gathering all clothes in the tent. Everything was still wet, but she apparently didn't care. Sophia was still very much asleep on her tire, so he imaged that Carol was just trying to keep busy. "Ya too late, you know, I already cleaned up shit this morning." He said and watched as Carol jumped slightly at his voice but calm down after a few minutes. No doubt when she realized that he wasn't Ed and wasn't going to hurt her she was able to relax. She cleared her throat while turning to look at him, "I just thought I would gather your and Merle's laundry up to do. It was all wet anyway, so I figured it would b nice for you boys to have some clean clothes." She looked so unsure of herself that Daryl couldn't help but nod at her.

"Shane said I should take the children fishing today, you can do laundry then if ya want." Daryl wasn't really sure what to say to her, but agreeing was always easy. Merle had told him that women liked it a lot when men agreed with them. It must be true, because Carol smiled brightly at him. "That's a wonderful idea Daryl, Sophia hasn't been fishing before but I'm sure she'll love it!"

What kind of kid hadn't been fishing before? He would have to show her how, but he was still sure that she would enjoy it. Having Carol around would be good to, and then he could keep watch over both of them and make sure they were safe. He would keep them both safe.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note: Finally have all of my first term mark's back and I'm very happy with them. All this extra studying and pulling my hair out and not sleeping at all seems to be both working and showing results! Even though, sometimes what gets me though the week is that I can sleep in until 10 on Saturdays. Also, that the walking dead is back on, on Sunday's night. That makes my weeks really awesome. Anyway, if you have time I would love anyone to review for me!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the story itself. Does anyone know how old Carl is in the beginning? I picture him to be around 11 or 12, but might just be because I want him to be a teen (13) by the time the prison happens. Thoughts? Also, ignore my lack of fishing knowledge in this chapter.**

Eventually, Sophia woke up from her deep sleep and uncurled herself from the tire. Carol had sorted all the clothes in the tent and had begun to take them out in piles to place in baskets. She seemed to be all for being able to cleaning his stuff and he wasn't going to stop her as long as she maintained that small, yet totally content smile on her face. He had been sitting on the now only damp ground, the sun was hot and dry and drying everything back out at a fast pace. He wondered if anyone else had noticed that with this people eating each other and turning into monsters thing, the weather had been doing weird things since as well. It was beginning to get him worried.

Sophia had stretched and stood up quietly, his coat remained in the tire and he had to hold in a laugh as she fixed her she slightly. It was way too big on her, but now that Carol had taken most of his clothes, he really didn't have anything to give her. Neither one of them said anything until Carol came back in and Sophia smiled widely as her mother laughed sweetly at her. "Oh dear, that shirt is just a little bit for you. You might need a few years to grow into it." Sophia grinned wider and jumped into her mother's arms for a hug. It was cute, and Daryl felt as though he was intruding for just being there. "Mr. Daryl's shirt is warm, I like it." Daryl took note of how carefree Sophia sounded in Carol's arms.

Carol laughed again and her hug tightened arm her daughter, before placing her down on the ground. "You better thank you Daryl for letting you stay in here, because I think that if you do he'll have a surprise for you." Sophia's little eyes widened and she turned to him expectantly. He could only guess that Carol wanted him to tell her that he was taking them fishing, because he really didn't have anything else to surprise her with. Even though Sophia definitely had his complete attention she walked up to him and tugged slightly on his jeans. "Thank you, fer letting me sleep here. Your safe and I like you."

That was so cute and innocent that even Daryl had to smile, Carol did it right along with him though, shaking her head the whole time. Though, he couldn't help but wonder why she had decided that he was to be declared safe. Not that he wasn't safe, he was probably the absolute safest in the camp to be around, but there was no way this girl should be able to pick up on that. "Well, because you're so nice. I decided to bring you and your friends out to the lake today. Though I could show y'all how to fish." It had been Shane's idea, but she certainly didn't need to know that, especially since Sophia just lit up like he had served her birthday cake for breakfast.

She hugged him and he went rigid. He didn't even mean to, but he hadn't been hugged since his own mother was alive. Sophia didn't seem to care though, and hugged him tightly. Eventually, he placed his hand on the top of her head and swirled it around in her hair, messing the already messy nest up even more. "Okay now kid, go with your moma and get dressed, have lunch then meet me back here again and everyone should be ready to go."

She let him go and all but bolted out of the tent, grabbing Carol's hand on the way out. Carol happily let her drag her out and then they were both gone with no more than a shouted, see you soon Mr. Daryl. Why Sophia decided to call him Mr. Daryl, he may never know. Absolutely everyone else in the camp called him Daryl, no Mr. or some kind of title needed. Still, she could be uncomfortable with just calling him Daryl, so he wouldn't bother her with it.

After lunch, Carl and Sophia were bouncing around outside of his tent. The other kids at the camp had apparently woken up in water and had gotten really sick from it. Daryl was a little bit wondered that they were infected with whatever disease it was that caused the walkers. He wasn't sure how one would get the disease beside through apparent bite, but knew enough to know that sick can linger and get people sick from just being in the air. He hoped that those kids didn't get it.

Carl was a few years older than Sophia, but didn't seem to mind that too much. He appeared to like leading their duo around and Sophia was ready to blindly follow, being too shy to speak up. Plus, she probably thought it was pretty cool to be able to hang out with an older kid. It was probably good for her to have friends, even if they were older though, so he wouldn't bring that up either. What did matter is he had three fishing rods ready and pretty much ready to fish with and Carl insisted on carrying his. Which Daryl allowed, because that meant he only had to carry 2, instead of three so why not let the kid have his way at that moment. He carried Sophia's though, and probably wouldn't have let her if she asked, there was a hook that was really short and he didn't want her to accidently stick herself. That wouldn't be a good start to the trip, and he wanted this to be a fun trip for her.

At the lake Carl automatically cast his rod out, and planted himself onto his place on the ground. Sophia, just looked over at Daryl though, and it took dramatically longer for her to start. Daryl's own rod sat forgotten on the ground, because h was busy just sitting beside Sophia, half hold the rod for her as she reeled it in and attempted to cast it out again. Sophia was having fun, Carl was ecstatic because he actually caught a fish, Carol was doing laundry not too far away and Daryl was able to keep a watch over both of them.

It was a nice afternoon, and for the first time, Daryl wondered if this was what it would be like to have a family.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: Starting two new classes today, one of which are career prep and I'm just going to go and say this is the most depressing class I've taken. It's literally just about talking about your future and I'm not sure about anything else. It hurts my brain to even have to think about. Anyway, thank you for reading my story this long and love every one of you who review. It's wonderful to read all your thoughts on what I've read. Also, at the point just about where the show begins now, and excited to see where this'll take me!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the walking dead, just the story itself.**

Days went by to this lovely trend, nothing dangerous, and everything calm. Ed had left the girls alone and stayed completely to himself; nothing dangerous had been even near the camp. It was turning out to be a very good week, and then something of course had to happen. The camp was beginning to run out of supplies, like soap and a few other things that Daryl was used to going without but the others felt to say like their humanity would die without it.

That meant people would have to go on a run o the city to pick up shit. Daryl was very unhappy about this, and though he didn't voice his opinion, he knew that this would divide the power of the camp and leave most people unprotected. It was dangerous to do that and he was glad that Shane was staying, it would be easier for them to protect everyone.

Merle volunteered himself to go, and that kind of surprised Daryl. He knew that Merle had to be running low on drug's right about now, but he was still very cautious of his surroundings and knew how dangerous it would be. That and Merle knew he would have problems in a group of people; he always had and probably always would. Still, all he could do was wish his older brother luck, because there was no way that he was leave the girls unprotected.

It was funny just how fast people grew on you and he was already starting to feel like he was part of the family. Sophia sat next to during dinner and last night both her and Carol joined him at the Dixon camp fire. Ed hadn't made an appearance at all, and Carol seemed more carefree then she had ever been. It was nice to see her smiling like that, and she had even made a joke. Which was progress because Merle had been there to, and had been staring at her without saying anything. Merle, he had to assumed didn't really mind that that girls had sat with them, because if he did, he wouldn't have made a very loud and rude fuss. Merle had let Sophia quietly tell him that next time they went, she would catch a fish and that would help provide to the camp. He had patted her on the head and informed her that she should take up cooking instead because that Lori woman was terrible at it and Sophia would probably be great at it. Sophia still grinned at him though, and Merle had kept the swearing and rudeness to a bare minimum. He'd always liked kids anyway.

Before the group left to Atlanta, Merle pulled him aside and cuffed him over the head. "You be nice to yer ladies while I'm gone and take care a the little one. Tell her uncle Merle is gonna bring her back sumthin cool." Daryl blinked at the words and just nodded. He didn't really understand why Merle had taken to the idea that he was now Carol's husband instead of Ed, but he certainly wasn't going to correct that. He hoped that Ed would be out of the picture soon anyway, guy was an asshole who did absolutely nothing for the camp. Besides, Daryl had already begun to refer to Carol and Sophia as his girls in his head anyway. Merle left without another word, and the convoy of people was gone.

Daryl gritted his teeth; he really didn't have anything to do today. He didn't dare go hunting or leave the camp with everyone this unprotected. The ladies were doing laundry again; just close enough to be in sight from his tent anyway, which was the farthest from camp. Ed was leaning on a car smoking not that far away from them and Shane was taking a turn on watch while Dale got out of the sun for awhile. The family that had the two kids with them hadn't made an appearance besides to get meals since their children got sick, and the way the adults were starting look, he was beginning to wonder if they would get better. One could only hope.

Sophia was sitting by his tent again, this time with a coloring book and a box of worn down crayons. Carl was somewhere, but as long as Daryl could see Sophia, he was fine. He was walking toward Sophia when Shane shouted at him, "Daryl, go stop Ed!" He was sure that Shane had said more than that, but he hadn't heard it. He just started sprinting towards where he had observed Ed to be not five minutes ago. Carol was on the ground and holding the side of her face, crying while Ed was swinging widely and screaming at her.

There are some moments in life where Daryl isn't exactly proud of his actions, letting Merle buy him a hooker for his 16th birthday, not standing up against his old man when he sold the property after his mother burnt; this was not one of those times. Daryl saw red and tackled Ed, bringing him down to the ground face first into the dirt with Daryl pretty much on top of him. He hoped it hurt as he gave a punch to the back of the head when Ed tried to reach behind him to dislodge him. Minutes later, Shane finally arrived and pulled him off Ed and lugged the bloodied faced man away. Daryl hoped that Shane roughed him up even more and told him to leave permanently. That probably wouldn't happen, but hell a man can dream.

After Ed was gone, the first thing that Daryl did was rush to Carol, who the rest of the ladies had helped up off the ground. She was still crying and Daryl felt as though he should really do something to make she feel better. He couldn't think of what to do. "It's going to get better Carol; we can move you out of his tent if you want." He nearly hit himself, sure hit on the married woman who was in pain and crying in front of you, ask her to move in with you why you don't, tell her to just leave her husband. What a great guy you are.

Carol hugged him then, or more like collapsed into his open arms and sobbed. Her face was dark red on the side and he knew that he must have hit her with quite a lot of force. It would bruise without much delay. "Thank you so much." Carol gasped out into Daryl chest and he hugged her close, swiping her up into his arms, and carrying her back to the camp where Sophia was. He could hear the rest of the ladies gasping and talking as he did so, but he was done caring about what they said.

When he reached the tent, Sophia looked up at them and stood up quickly, rushing over to her distressed mother. He set Carol down on his sleeping bag and looked at the two girls together and swallowed harshly. This was his family now, and no one or any force on this earth would take them away from him.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's note: Some of you are probably wondering when Rick is going to make an appearance, but you shouldn't have to wait any longer! I've decided to somewhat follow the walking dead plot, but I have to watch the first season again, because it's been awhile. Feel free to leave me a review if you have time, I always love seeing people comment on my work. Thanks! P.S. next week is March break for me, and that means nothing will be posted. Don't worry though, next chapter will find its way out on the 10****th**** of March! Sorry ahead of time for the long wait.**

**Disclaimer: I only own the story itself; I'm a poor college student.**

Things had been quiet for the rest of the day, Sophia had returned to her coloring and Carol had left to help with dinner. Daryl had sat and colored with Sophia, before he got up and checked the amount of wood the camp had and realized it wasn't very much. Chopping wood wasn't exactly his favorite thing to do, but it needed to be done, so he would do it. No one had bothered him at all, though Sophia sat close enough to him at dinner, to almost be on top of his lap. Carol had sat with the women of the camp today.

He wished that she had sat by him as well, but he imaged that she was pretty shaken about today's earlier situation. He figured that she need to be around other women more then she needed to sit next to some rough guy that she was depending on to keep her family safe. Perhaps, she felt threatened by him, or thought he was dangerous and was just too scared to speak up. Daryl could only hope that that wasn't the case, but considering that Sophia seemed to be totally fine sitting next to him, he guessed she probably needed time to think about everything that had happened.

Sophia was leaning on him and smiling as they watched the small fire burn. She was smiling and even though it was just after dinner now, and not even really dark yet, Sophia's little eyes wee drooping. He imaged that she just wasn't used to be up late at all. Though, judging by the position of the sun; Daryl could estimate it was about 7 p.m. The girl wasn't very old, she was probably used to going to sleep this early, and most little kids did and then were up really early in the morning. Merle had had single moms over before and they always said that; they had to be home before sun rises because their kid was always up around that time. Not that he had ever listened in on their conversations or anything that would just be weird.

Still, it didn't take long for the little girl to slump against him, drop dead asleep to the world. Daryl went rigid as he could, trying not to move at all as the little girl slept against him. He wondered if Carol had noticed yet, not that it mattered, he was totally capable of just letting Sophia sleep like this against him. Though, she would probably didn't mind all that much, it couldn't be any worse than letting the girl sleep on top of his spare tire. Even his shoulder must be more comfortable than that. That, of course, didn't actually mean that he was comfortable with her sleeping on his shoulder. There were just too many things that could manage to go wrong with that.

If the current situation turned bad, and the camp was suddenly invaded with those things, he would have to push her off and make a jump for his crossbow. That would probably shock and confuse her, and even scar her quite a bit. He didn't want to do that, but he would if it was necessary towards the goal of keeping her safe.

The night ticked by slowly and eventually the fires began to die down (they weren't suppose to be very big to begin within attempt to not draw thing from the night in) and it started to cool down from the hot late summer heat. Not that Daryl was really cold, he found it to be unpleasantly hot during most days and often enjoyed when it cooled down at night. He was just worried about Sophia, who seemed to move closer to him with every cool breeze that blew. Her face was even now pressed firmly into his arm, and she was half sitting in his lap. Eventually, he gave in and just picked her up and walked her over towards his tent.

Never in his life did Daryl image he would be caring a sleeping kid in his arms, so that he could put them too bed. He hoped Carol didn't mind that he was going to put her to bed, because he couldn't see her at the moment (he kind of thought that perhaps she had already retired when he wasn't paying attention) and he really didn't want Sophia to catch a cold. This was not the type of world that they could afford to have sick people in.

He found he was right, when he entered the tent, Carol was already sitting on the spare tire, which for some reason had become much like he favored seat in the house. Which was kind of weird, because he totally had a stool that sat in the corner; why people preferred the tire he'd never know. Carol looked up when they entered and she smiled, though he wasn't sure whether it was at him or at Sophia. He set Sophia down on his bed area; her and Carol could sleep there with the extra blankets they had brought with them to keep more warm and he would sleep where Merle usually was tonight, he was still out on that run. They would have to work something else out tomorrow.

When Sophia had been placed down, Carol came over to pull the blankets up to her chin and kiss her little girl sweetly on the forehead. Daryl just stood there awkwardly, not really sure what to do. He nodded to Carol and with a, "Going out to watch the fires a little while longer. Make yourselves at home." He left them alone.

Daryl tried not to think about that look of relief hat Carol had gotten when he said he was leaving again. He tried not to realize that more than likely Carol had been expecting him to make a move and be just the same as Ed, to end up being a total bastard even after the Daryl she'd just gotten wasn't like that. He couldn't help but wonder if before they were married, Ed wasn't all that much of a bad guy and waited until after to show how much of a bastard he was. If they had had Sophia by the time the abuse started, and by then Carol couldn't escape because she couldn't support the both of them. It was hard not thinking about that despairing look that Carol gave him, and that sad smile that he could now recognize as resignation.

God, did he ever just want to hit something. Instead, he just put out what was left of the fires and nodded towards Jim, who had volunteered for night watch. They had never spoken, but there was an unspoken comfort between them of I stay out of your way and you'll stay out of mine. Jim nodded back and he took a few minutes to walk the perimeter of their camp site. He wasn't quite ready to go and face Carol again, he was afraid she would look at him like he was going to jump out of his skin and become a monster.

A scream happened from the direction of his tent that had him running. When he arrived, he saw red as a crying Sophia was holding her face in the corner, as Carol stood in front of her, trying her hardest trying to block her from Ed. Daryl had never felt more angry in his life, and not just with Ed, but with himself for being too chicken shit to stay with the people who were depending on him.

He yanked Ed by the collar and threw him out of the tent, kicking him in the ribs as they went. With Ed now down on the ground, Daryl grabbed him by his hair and proceeded to pull him back to Ed's tent, kicking him once more before doing up the zipper and walking away. He wanted nothing more than to beat Ed until he stopped breathing, but Sophia had looked hurt back there and he wanted to check on her more then he wanted to kill Ed. He delayed that to shout up at Jim, "Hey, he leaves his tent, make sure either Shane or I know about it." Jim nodded and gave him thumbs up; Daryl was starting to wonder if the man even talked. He'd never heard a word come out of his mouth.

Back in the tent, Sophia was still sobbing loudly and Carol wasn't really doing much better. They were curled together into a ball in the same corner he had left them in, and it made his heart sink. With a sigh, Daryl pulled all the mats and blankets in the tent together and into the middle. When he was finished he went over and picked Carol up into his arms with Sophia smooshed between them. As he laid them all down in a lump, Carol clung to him and Sophia was wedged between the two of them. The stayed like that until long after the sunup the next day.


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: Working as hard as ever, though March Break is getting ever closer! For some reason, I had a lot of trouble righting the last chapter and this one didn't really go that much smoother either. Maybe it's just not a good week. Though, today I found out I over payed my tuition and got a check back of money that I didn't know I had. That's always nice to have happen. Feel free to leave a review if you have time, I always read them and they usually make my day. By the way enter Rick in this chapter, and I tried to show what Daryl first impression of Rick was.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the story itself.**

When Daryl woke up, he had a little girl with one bruised cheek curled up on top of his chest and drooling slightly. He took note that he had definitely slept in, because the sun was already high in the sky and he usually woke up before it even came up. Carol was gone though, last night she'd been curled into his side and that heat and pressure was missing. He wasn't worried about it; Ed wouldn't try anything out in the sun in front of Shane. Shane would hopefully beat him to death before anything happened.

There was also something about how Carol had left her little girl with him that said just how much she now trusted him. Sophia would be safe with him; probably safer with him then with her. He wouldn't ever make the mistake of letting his guard down again; Sophia was going to be the safest little girl alive. Carol was going to be safe to, and free from Ed if he had any more say in it at all.

A pang went off in Daryl's heart; he should have been there to stop anything from happening. Instead, Sophia got hit and now had to live with the knowledge that her father had hit her. Shit like that could mess up a childhood. As he moved, Sophia woke up to; sitting up right away like she hadn't just been rudely awakened and she smiled at him. He smiled back even though she as sitting now on his chest, and it was kind of hard to breath, not that she was heavy or anything, he just wasn't used to having a weight on his lungs. He let her get hurt, and she still smiled brightly at him. "Good Morning, Dar!"

Daryl felt his heart melt with that little sentence from the most important little girl that had ever been in his life. Also, the only nick name he'd ever had was Darylena and that was because Merle could be a jerk. This wasn't a situation like that and Sophia had only done it out of the trustingness of her small child heart. "Mornin' Soph. Ready for breakfast?" She nodded enthusiastically and finally removed herself from his chest. He expected her to run from the tent towards food and undoubtedly where her mom would be cooking, but instead she waited for him to untangle himself from the blankets and stand up. She reached forward and grabbed his hand and remained planted next to his side, gripping his large hand tightly with her tiny one.

He walked her all the way to breakfast and even when everyone stared, she didn't let go. The only thing that made her let go was when they were directly beside Carol, where Sophia finally released his hand and leapt to her mother for a hug. Carol gave him both of their plates of food while talking to her daughter; "Carl asked if you knew how to play soccer, so after breakfast you guys can play for awhile, but be careful and stay where everyone can see you. I think we'll be doing more laundry later if you wanna go swimming, but that'll be after lunch." Sophia ate sitting close to him then quickly left her plate to him and ran off towards Carl.

While bringing the plates back to Carol, she grabbed his arm and tugged him to then sit next to her. He went without a fight, taking the ground next to Carol's folding chair. She leaned over towards him, capturing his attention. Maybe it was because they had other people surrounding them, or maybe it was because they were in broad daylight. Whatever it was, Carol looked look she was glowing and absolutely in control of this whole situation. "I want to thank you for everything that you've done for me and Sophia. I didn't know how we were going to even get through last night and you managed to walk us through it." Carol smiled at him with a sweet and graceful smile that was full of love and emotions that Daryl just wasn't used to seeing when people looked at him. He couldn't help but smile back.

Then a car horn could be heard in the distance and everyone around the camp was bolting up and towards the sound. It was dangerous and stupid to have something so loud, so close to the camp. The things were attached to sounds, smells and god knew what else. He didn't think the camp could have been angrier with the returning parties to the camp. Shane screamed and Lori screeched at the poor Asian boy. He went from looking like he was happy to be alive, to cowering away from mommy and daddy figures that are angry at him.

He could have laughed at the stupidity of it, if the van full of others hadn't pulled up at that moment and unloaded. There was a new guy who Carl had cried out for as "Dad!" and he witnessed Lori's eyes snap open wide, and her slapping away Shane's hands like they were made of lava. He wasn't really sure what opinion he should form about that; she had been all over Shane the whole time they had been at this camp and now it was like she was disgusted to stand in his presence with Carl's father there. Daryl thought he'd heard a word like "bipolar" that would explain that pretty well. He wasn't exactly sure though, and it wasn't his place to judge.

What also caught his eye is that there was no Merle coming out of the van with him. The new guy wearing the police get-up just looked, happy to be here and happy to be around his family again. He hugged Lori like he had no idea that she had moved on from apparently being the love of his life. Then he spoke; "Which one of you is Merle's brother?"

Daryl gritted his teeth and stepped forward, now glaring at the cop, he had never really had a good experience talking to a cop. "Your brother was a danger to the group, so I hand cuffed him to him roof of a building."

God damn, this cop was nuts. He fucking didn't care about anyone, he was a fucking asshole. _He was probably right to do it. "_And you just left him there?" His hands gripped tight into fists and clenched desperately. His temper made him want to rip the guy's face off, yet the voice in his head said everyone was watching, including Sophia and Carol and they didn't need to see that. T-dog spoke up, and while he'd never actively talked to the man, Daryl had decided that he was alright, "I had the key, but dropped it."

"You couldn't go back for it?"

"I dropped it down the drain."

Daryl stalked off towards his tent, not being able to be around this conversation any longer. But Sophia was sitting outside the tent, looking sad and not playing soccer like she was supposed to be. Then he had remembered Carl running and clinging onto the cop, and he wondered if he had just ditched her the moment the car drove up. He grabbed her coloring book from the tent and crayons, bringing them back out and sitting beside the sulking girl. They could be miserable together, might as well help her color as well.

Sophia's face lit up like it was the fourth of July.


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note: I'm really proud on how this story is turning out and am happy that all those people reviewed or are following it. It's always a happy moment when you see that people are actually reading your work. And on that note, I decided with people to protect at that point, he wouldn't have gone after Merle. Though I'm still trying to decide if I want Merle to be separated, or to have him actually come back. Makes me feel confident about getting chapters up and out on time. Trying for two chapters a week now, one on Monday and one on Thursday. We'll see how long I can keep that going. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the story itself.**

Eventually, the cop or Rick as he'd eventually introduced himself, had come and found him and Sophia who were coloring with each other outside. He looked surprised to see him with a child; well flabbergasted might be a better word. Damn cop couldn't believe that he could be happy and have a normal life and have something of a normal functioning family. Rick stopped like three feet from them and smoothly coughed at them, successfully getting both of their attention. "Daryl, right? Can we talk."

Daryl went to stand up, but Sophia was fast on grabbing him by the arm and attaching herself to his side. She looked up at him pleadingly, and whimpered; "Don't leave Daryl; I don't want you to leave." He wasn't sure how to react to that, he wasn't planning on going far, but now he didn't want to leave at all. With a sigh, Daryl stayed in his seat and looked back up at Rick. "We can talk here. Sophia doesn't mind and there is no one else around."

Rick hadn't counted on that apparently, and now looked doubly uncomfortable. "We're getting a group together to go after your brother, with man power we should be able to get through and save him. He should still be up on the roof, T-Dog told me he locked the door and there was no way for him to get out of those cuffs himself." Daryl gritted his teeth and tried his best not to swear at Rick, that was inappropriate for Sophia to hear and he was trying to work on that. Or maybe he was just done with talking to Rick, just like he had been earlier. "Look, as much as I care for my brother I can't just leave everyone unprotected at the camp. If he escapes then he'll head back here, knowing him just to be able to punch you in the head. You better count on that, cause no one can kill Merle but Merle. Tough as nails, feed him a hammer and he'll crap out nails." Rick looked confused that Daryl didn't want to go after his brother; he probably thought he was just some loud, rude and terrible hick. He was only some of those things.

The conversation was clearing over, yet Rick didn't leave. He stood in front of the two of them as Sophia went back to coloring and pointing to what space she wanted Daryl to color with what color. He imagined that it looks pretty stupid, gruff looking guy like him with a tiny girl in his lap and using crayons. He didn't really care though, let the cop think whatever he wanted, he was happy at the moment and that was good enough.

Rick didn't leave even as lunch was called and Sophia ran ahead to see her mother. She had told him all about how excited she was to go swimming today, and he didn't blame her with how hot it was. As soon as Sophia was gone though, Rick sat down from is hour long looming position with a grunt. He held at his hand and Daryl found himself staring at it. "I just wanted to say that we never got a chance to be introduced. My name is Rick Grimes; I'm Lori's husband and Carl's father."

Daryl then shook his hand, "Daryl Dixon." He didn't trust himself to say more; like I had a brother. "Well Daryl, Shane told me about you and how you defended Carol and that little girl from that Ed guy and have been providing food to the camp. I just wanted you to know that you're much appreciated and people are grateful for you."

Daryl nodded at him, but then looked over at him sharply and bit down on his thumb nail. He wasn't exactly sure what Rick wanted from him, but he was sure as hell not giving compliments to a stranger for free like this. Rick continued, "I've seen lots of woman in the same state of Carol and I think it's a good thing that you're doing here. Even for that little girl, she already looks at you like you're the greatest thing in the world. Which is pretty much what it means to be a father, to make sure your kid thinks you're a superhero because you'd do anything for them."

Rick stood up and left without another word to Daryl and he had to stop and reflect on what had just happened. Did it really look like he was the girl's father? Though the main thought in that was that he didn't mind that people thought that he was, it didn't bother him at all. Carol sat down beside him with two bowls of what appeared to be back water stew. He smiled at her as she handed him one of the bowls, apparently if he didn't get to lunch for about 30 minutes after it is called, Carol would make sure he got fed. It was nice to know that someone in this world cared for him, and more importantly (or rarely) someone cared about him. Even Merle would eat his portion if he wasn't fast enough. As kids they were lucky if they got anything to eat, so you learned to be quick about it if there was something.

They sat quietly and ate the soup together. It was really nice.


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note: The world just seems to move so fast some time, and I have been on the go so much that I haven't had time to do much writing. March break was nice, but seemed to be so short and now seems like it was years ago. Maybe last week wasn't a good time to try and quit my coffee addiction, or I need more sleep. Probably both. If you have time to leave a review, I'd be so happy to read it!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything, being a poor college student is hard.**

It had been a calm afternoon, which of course meant that all hell would break loose during the night. Andrea's little sister had her arm champed on, and Andrea seemed to immediately die with her. Daryl wanted to go over and yank her to her feet, and yell about how she wanted to show that women were strong, and then she should fucking start acting strong. He didn't have time or an extra arm though. He was already one handed use his crossbow, throwing it aside and pulling out his gun when he ran out of arrows. He had Sophia hoisted up on his side, with his other arm wrapped around her to keep her safe. Carol had been too far away for him to grab, but he sure as hell wasn't going to let Sophia go and be bitten by one of those things. He'd protect her with his life.

Then, as quickly as the swarm had started, it came to an end. Taking with it the lives of Ed, Amy, and the whole family with the two other kids. It was silent all around the camp as they found themselves mourning the people they had been laughing with just moments ago. Life never seemed to be so cruel before that moment, never seemed to be so damn short. He placed Sophia back down on the ground as soon as he deemed the area safe and dropped his weapon to pick up carol in a hug when she got close enough. He made sure to squish Sophia in the middle and he could hear the girls giggling together, Carol had streaks of tears going down her face. He hugged them both twice, confirming that he had been able to keep them both safe that they were both still okay.

That night, Sophia fell asleep hours past when she should have and they placed her in the RV under the watch of Glenn, Lori, and Carl. Everyone else was much to wired, to afraid to sleep. They could still here the screams of Amy, of those other little kids that they hadn't really heard much of because they had been sick, but that didn't stop them from screaming. That didn't stop everyone from hearing their screams of terror filled pain, and their shrieks of help. They would haunt the remaining people of the camp for weeks to come.

Carol sat near the RV and listened as he, Rick, Shane, and Dale argued about moving on. It was now apparently dangerous to stay here; they were running low on things to eat, they had next to no ammo left. There was only like four guns at the camp to begin with and that included Andrea's who wasn't going to be willing to part with it and didn't really know how to use it. It probably had an almost full clip though, for she had only shot the thing that had been chewing on her sister once in the head. Daryl only had 2 bullets left and the ten arrows for his bow, which he still needed to pull out of corpses around the camp. He had more than most people.

Shane and Rick were arguing where they should be moving to and Rick kept pointing out that in Atlanta he had had to left a large bag of guns behind. Daryl didn't feel good about it, but he really didn't see another way around it. They needed bullets and guns, or they weren't going to make it. Then again, they didn't have the gun power to go and pick up more and it would be very dangerous to just leave and try to get them. Daryl gritted his teeth and didn't bother giving his opinion; he would do whatever they wanted for the matter of the guns. Though when they mentioned the CDC he made his opinion loudly known, "Its close; should go check it out. People need food; water and a safe place ta sleep. Might be doctors and shit there too, figure are chances are a lot better if we got ourselves one of those." Surprisingly both Rick and Shane agreed with him on that, and left that alone. Daryl guessed that that meant that they would be going to the CDC to check it out then.

He left them to argue once more and couldn't help but shake his head at their stupidity. He wondered if when they were young at just what age they waited to until they started just whipping it out for measuring contests. Jesus, what if they had an agreement to share Lori; that sounded like a thing these city cops would do.

Fuck, he wouldn't ever share a woman with anyone. He looked over a Carol and saw her staring off into the distance, and thought about that last sentence. Ed had been her husband and he had just stolen them away from that cruel man. Was that like sharing, until Ed had died? Ed had been dead to him the whole time he had been in camp. Once all his arrows had been picked up and his bow had been retrieved, he returned to sit next to Carol. She leaned her head against his shoulder and they both stared off into the distance.

Carol broke the ice of her feeling by speaking aloud, "He was a bad and mean man who I wished I had been able to leave for the longest time. I kept wishing that one day he wouldn't come home; just leave me sitting at the house in front of a dinner that had gone cold hours ago. I wanted him gone, but that didn't mean I wanted him to die." Daryl couldn't help but realize just how good a person she was at that moment, and he couldn't find words to say that would help her as she cried into his shoulder.

He just held her as she cried, long into the night. Long past the time of Rick and Shane arguing. Until it was the only sound in the night.


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note: I feel like I'm falling behind on getting these chapter written and out on the schedule that I originally planned; then again I didn't actually plan for the story to be this long. Though haven't really thought of a good ending yet, so I might just continue to loosely follow the shows story line for a good long while yet! If you have the time to review I would love you if you did. **

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but the story itself.**

The next morning everyone remained quiet as they hacked up and burned bodies, setting loved ones aside to bury them. Daryl thought it was a waste of time, but kept his mouth shut about it when Carol piped up and said she still wanted to bury Ed. That he hadn't always been the man that he had turned into, that she had still loved him when she had married him.

Despite almost everyone being over tired and exhausted, they still worked together to dig holes for the graves. Daryl had found an ax and had taken to chopping the other bodies up so they were easier to burn, while he watched Carol fret while digging and turn to Ed every few seconds like he was going to get up and beat her for being so slow about it. He wished that he could think of something to say so that she would stop, that she would feel so afraid or threatened. His mind remained blank.

They buried everyone that afternoon and it had been revealed that Jim, the mechanic who had originally come in with Dale in the RV had been bitten. It wasn't exactly hard to tell after a few hours, he was pale, sweating, gasping harshly and was drooling uncontrollably with a nose bleed that hadn't stopped for the last hour. Daryl had mentioned putting him down if he wanted and the rest of the camp had gone crazy on him. Everyone started repeating how "we don't kill humans," and "it's immoral to sin like that," or "it would be murder." He was sorry that he had even brought it up, but had only meant that if Jim didn't want to suffer through what they could bother stopping, all he had to do was ask. It didn't matter if everyone else was yelling though, because Jim just smiled and nodded him head politely; he at least understood what Daryl had meant.

Carol cried as they placed Ed in the ground and fell to the ground, Daryl wasn't sure if he should go and comfort her or not. This could very well be one of those moments were girls just need to cry until they feel better; he could still remember his mom talking about that. He decided not to move though, Sophia was by his side and holding his hand and he didn't want to move away from the little girl at the moment. Sophia wasn't crying, she was just gripping his hand tightly and staring at her mother lose it. That must have been hard to see for her.

After they were done burying all the people, Daryl led Sophia back to the tent and let the woman take care of Carol. Everyone had formed a support group around both Carol and Andrea, hugging them and saying happier thoughts. People were still crying and Daryl thought that Sophia had probably had enough of that today. They needed to pack up anyway, late afternoon they planned to travel as a group to the CDC and leave the guns as a lost cause. Shane and Rick had come to the agreement that there were hundreds to many walkers to make a move for the guns and if they were to have hope that the CDC was going to be safe they didn't need them anyway.

Daryl didn't want to just blindly and faith wasn't his thing since his mother had died. Still, he was glad they weren't going to split up and make a run for those guns. More people would just end up dying and the group wouldn't be protected if they tried it.

Sophia sat down on her claimed apparent favorite tire and was watching as Daryl threw thing and stuffed them into the few old army duffle bags that he and Merle had used at the beginning. Sophia's and Carol's things went in there to, as well as back into Carol's old styled suitcase. He couldn't decide whether he should throw Ed's clothes out or not, they wouldn't fit him like Merle's could. He wasn't sure if they'd fit anyone else either and he wasn't sure how'd anyone react to having to were a dead assholes clothes. Still, it would be nice to have something to cut into rags if needed.

He turned to look at Sophia, who hadn't said anything since before the funerals. She was just staring at him and didn't look to happy, had an expression that shouldn't be present on a 7 year olds face. "What's the matter Soph?" He asked giving the girl his full attention. In return, Sophia looked up at him with her wide eyes, and spoke quietly. "My father's gone, so why was mommy crying? She only ever cried when he was around before, did I do something wrong? Is that why mommy's sad?"

His heart broke at the little girls words, how could someone so cute and innocent be worrying about doing something wrong? He sat on the ground beside the girl with a heavy sigh. For some reason, he thought that comforting Sophia would be easier than trying to figure out what Carol had needed from him at that moment. He had been wrong. He had been so very wrong.

"Your mom's said because he not going to come back, and now she has to get used to being alone." He wasn't exactly sure if that had come out right or had even been what he meant. Sophia tilted her head to the side, she was obviously confused as well. "Mommy's not alone, she has us. If you married her, would she stop being sad?" Daryl choked on his own saliva as Sophia then started rambling a mile and minute. "If you married mommy, then would you be my dad? Do you like bubblegum, father doesn't like bubblegum. If he's gone, the why did we put him in the ground? Is that how the flowers grow? Are people chosen and then live underground helping push them up from below? Does that mean I don't have to see him again either? Can you teach me how to blow a bubble in my bubble gum, Chealsea , my friend from school, her father taught her how and I can't really figure it out. Mom called father Ed, and he always got mad when I called him Ed, and sometimes he'd pull my hair because I'm suppose to call him dad. Can you be my dad instead?"

Daryl felt very much overwhelmed by her thousand questions, and wasn't sure how he should answer the dad ones. He wasn't sure how Carol would want him to answer. He cleared his throat and gathered his wits; it was time to act brave. "You know what Soph, I can probably teach ya how to blow those bubbles, soon as we get our hands on some gum. Ed's not coming back; you don't have to worry about him anymore. Your momma's gonna be fine after she cries for a little bit. Sometimes people just need to cry so they can feel better."

Sophia didn't mention that he ignored the marriage and dad questions. He was thankful for that. As she then helped him finish packing, they moved the stuff to be on back of his truck, stashing everything around his brother's motorcycle. He wasn't going to leave that behind; Merle coming home with it after winning it in a poker game a few years earlier was probably one of the best memories he had of him. He had been ecstatic and so happy with everything; he hadn't taken drugs for 2 weeks straight. He had spent all his time working on it, like he didn't realize that he wasn't high, or definitely going through withdrawals.

As the whole group got ready, a tired looking, yet not as miserable Carol came over to join them. The three of them all crawled into the truck and the whole camp slowly trained their way out, starting the long journey to the CDC.


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's note: Isn't life busy at the moment? It's hard to believe that in a few short months, I'll be graduated from college and to their in the world with a degree at 18. Not sure what I'm going to do once school is over, I'll I know is that I'm planning on moving again. Guess I'll just have to figure it out as I go, anyway enjoy this chapter and feel free to leave a review if you have the time. It always makes me happy to read them!**

**Disclaimer: There is next to nothing I own in life, and the walking dead is definitely not one of those things.**

Things had been quiet on their way to the CDC, right up until Jim had wanted off the RV. Everyone had once again made a big seen about leaving him behind, but the man had clearly already chosen. He knew he was dying and quickly and they knew that those things came back from people who had been bitten. It was truly only a matter of a time before he sudden stood up and tried to chew on someone. Daryl tipped his head to him in salute; Jim was a brave man for leaving rather than dying around people who cared for him. It was sad, but much safer this way.

People had slunk away from the scene once they realized that their opinions weren't mattering to him and he had already decided. Daryl had stopped to talk to him though, Jim might have decided it better to die alone, but that didn't mean he didn't deserve a good bye. Daryl took in his slick and soaked skin and his tired and barely open eyes. Whatever those bites did to someone, it seemed painful and killed the person from the inside out. Jim had looked fine that morning, like whatever this disease was would just take down everything at once and make them suffer terribly while doing so.

Jim gazed up at him with a far off look and Daryl wandered if he was really even seeing anything around him, or whether he was having hallucinations. Maybe a hallucination would be best right now; he could very well be remembering or picturing a better time. Then Jim started speaking, "You keep a close eye on your daughter there, and don't let her go. Don't let Carol go either, those things are everywhere and it's just not worth it when they're gone. I'll I have now is hope that there's an afterlife, so I can see them again. Hold them close man." Jim broke out in a coughing fit after that and didn't bother to say anything more.

The thought ran through Daryl's head for the first time that maybe Jim had had a family before all this had started. As he got back into the truck, he quickly tried to push that thought from his mind. Losing a child would be unbearable and losing everyone would hurt too much for him. He couldn't picture losing Sophia or Carol, especially when he had just found them. He remained tense and unspoken for the rest of the drive. He felt Carol eyes on him though, and at one point, she had reached over and placed a hand on his shoulder. He wondered if he had looked upset about having to leave Jim behind after he had suggested that he would put Jim down if he only asked. It wasn't as if they had been friends or anything, they had probably only spoke a handful of times. He had been a nice guy though and easy to get along with.

Carol's hand remained there until they pulled to a stop, not that far away for the closed CDC building. There were some of those things blocking the entrance, but not too many. What was truly worrying was that it was already starting to get dark and those things always seems to multiply in the dark. Even a few of those things would be danger, because they couldn't afford to use bullets on them unless they got over whelmed. A few people (Rick, Shane, T-Dog) had axes and the rest (the woman) were left undefended. Daryl had his bow, a knife with him. He didn't like that Sophia and Carol didn't have anything to defend themselves with, but neither of them would be able to use his knife without hurting themselves most likely anyway.

As they got out of the car, Carol picked up her daughter and hugged her close, which was a good idea considering how fast they were moving. Daryl stuck close to his girls, shooting only when things got to close, so he could retain his arrows. They all stopped dead at the door and had to listen to Rick yell at the supposed camera he had saw move. Carol had moved close enough that their sides were missing and Sophia was smooshed between the two of them. He could tell Carol was terrified and trying to keep herself calm to not scar Sophia, but watching a man you had known to be leader like and calm for a while now, lose it and scream, "Your killing them!" at a door would freak out anyone.

It was hard not to get the chills from that, did Rick really think that the CDC was their only chance left and that there was nowhere left to go? No hope left if this didn't work out, Daryl shoved that thought to the back of his mind as he realize that all the commotion they have caused, plus the yelling had caused a large group of those things to head towards them. They were backed into a corner and with no gun power; they were going to have one hell of a time getting out of it. Rick continued to make a scene while Shane tried to pull him away and everyone else swung what they could at the walkers and avoided them.

Daryl realized that there was no way that they were going to make it back to the cars in one peace without losing more people, against the wall here all they had to defend were there fronts and they were slowly failing at that. Carol squeaked when one got much to up close and personal for her liking and found she didn't have anywhere to go. Daryl ended up stepping in front of them against the wall after he'd offed that one. Those things would have to get through him first, before they would get anywhere near his family. Though he was quickly realizing there were way too many of those things and this was a losing battle with no retreat.

Sometimes miracles happen in the worst of places that are dark and hopeless. The door to the CDC opened up and they were able to slink themselves indoors and watch it close back up. Everyone was alive.


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's Note: Anyone else rally sad that there is only a few weeks left and then the season will be over? I'm happy about spring and summer, but damn am I sad about all my favorite shows stopping and having to wait for them to start again. Maybe that's why I never do nearly as much writing in the summer as I do the winter; less inspiration? Leave a review if you have the time and I'll love you forever and a day!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, like nothing at all.**

The doors had opened, and he'd never been happier at that moment. A few more minutes and he had no doubt that everyone would have been dead. Instead though, the last doctor had declared that he would risk everything he had and brought strangers into his strong hold. In his head he applauded the balls on the man.

When they got inside, Sophia had somehow been transferred from Carol to Daryl and she was leaning against him as they all squished into the elevator and went down. Carol admitted to not liking elevators, but she did so with a smile on her face. A smile that just screamed, 'I'm happy to be alive right now, I'm too happy to have time for fear.' He couldn't help but grin back; he hadn't exactly thought that they were going to make it either. It's funny after the moment you thought your life was over, all that you had left to feel was absolute freedom. Maybe that why Carol leaned up and suddenly placed a kiss to the side of his mouth, and then just as quickly turn towards the ladies who were excitedly squealing about the news of having a warm shower.

His lips tingled from that almost kiss and he just knew that he was shades of red; but no one mentioned it. Well, Sophia definitely saw it and was giggling in his arms, and he couldn't help but smile at that. These girls seemed to have the power to make him smile all the time.

Everyone quickly moved from the elevator when it stopped and was dispersed over all the room, claiming them in group. Carol looked at him and he just nodded, though he was kind of surprised that she wanted to stay with him still. There were just couches in the rooms, as they weren't actually designed for living in, there were coats pulled out and ready to be set up though. The thought ran through his mind that this was a place that they could stay for quite awhile, they would be safe here. It wouldn't' be forever; food never holds up forever, but here they could train to be ready and let the children be children. By the time they were forced to leave, they could be ready for it, be much better off than before.

Carol and Sophia went into the shower together and he could hear them giggling together as he set up a cot. They sounded happy and excited to be here and he found that that was rubbing off on him as well. In fact, it wasn't just his girls who were ecstatic, people wondering through the hallways had large smiles like they hadn't just lost everything or like they hadn't just watched some people die. He let them have their happy moments though, they deserved that. Especially Andrea, who had just lost her sister, looked happier as she pull a cot to be in the same room as Dales. Talking to the old, understanding man seemed to make things better for her and he could tell that somehow she was slowly going to be able to bounce back, with the appropriate amount of time at least. That was good, they had left enough people already and they didn't need to lose more to depression.

By the time that he had showered as well, it was getting late. Though Carol and Sophia hadn't been in the room when he was finished, Sophia had been saying that Carl had said that he was going to teach her how to play battleship. He wasn't exactly sure what that was, but it had sounded like a board game and that was good enough to lead him to believe that they were probably in the game room.

No one had complained that they hadn't had anything to eat today; even the kids who had been fed cereal bars when asked for food. No one said anything or even attempted to look for the kitchen, they all just went right to bed. Daryl guessed that it was because they hadn't slept safely in so long now that given the choice between a good night's sleep and a warm meal; the good night's sleep didn't even need competition to win out. It was the same for him though, he couldn't wait for sleep, though he couldn't just go to sleep without knowing Carol and Sophia didn't need him this night. Which is why he found himself wondering the halls, looking for the game room. He just needed to see them, whether or not they were safe right now, he needed to see it for himself.

The room was filled with laughter when he showed up; Carol and Sophia were sitting across from Carl, Lori and Glenn. They appeared to be playing some sort of children's card game and laughing their heads off while doing so. It was good to see everyone being so carefree, and he found himself just pulling a book off the shelf and sitting on the couch in the background. Sophia smiled brightly and waved at him when he had walked in and pouted when he didn't come play cards, but she split right out of that when it was her turn again. He would have played with them, but the only card game he had ever played was poker; Merle had taught it to him at a young age and that's what they had always done in free time.

Sophia must have decided that it was good enough to have him in the room though; because she lit up even brighter then she was before. Seeing the girls so happy; he didn't even mind the extra two hours they spent up instead of sleeping, didn't complain as he carried a sleeping Sophia for Carol who looked three steps away from being sleep as well. He put Sophia on the bed and Carol quickly joined her after placing a kiss to his cheek. He grinned and bid her goodnight before turning off the light and finding his way back to the couch. More the ready for having a good night of sleep, more than ready to wake up rested and safe. This was the beginning of something good.


	14. Chapter 14

**Author's Note: I don't know why but I like to think of Glenn being just 18, maybe it's because at the beginning of the show I related a lot to him and that's my age? Or perhaps it's because before he found Maggie, he both looked and acted recklessly young. By the way, I've decided that CDC stay is going to be a little longer then what they had in the show; it was just depressing to see how little down time they got when in a safer environment. As always, if you have time to review, I'd really appreciate it. It's always makes the writing process easier when you have someone out there who you know enjoys your work.**

Daryl assumed it was already morning when he woke up; he found it weird being underground like this and not being able to see the sun. Having spent most of his life hunting and scavenging, it was discombobulating and made his head spin. This room had no windows or ways outside, which granted, is what made it safe, but placed Daryl in the situation of he didn't know what to do with himself. He couldn't hunt and provide down here; hell last night he had tried reading and had failed miserably at that. It had been years and he found himself sounding out words in his head for minutes at a time.

All thoughts were stopped when he suddenly heard a, "Psst! Mr. Daryl, are you awake?" Well Sophia was definitely awake and ready to be up. He didn't blame her, being one of the few people that had managed to get plenty of sleep back at the camp. Children didn't seem to care about the situation, they would appear to fight to stay up later and then just fall asleep at a certain time anyway. Usually not even late enough to be explained as late. Which is why she had so much energy this morning, leaping from her and her mother's bed (Carol still appeared to be asleep but he had a feeling she was just listening with her eyes closed) and crawling up to be sitting on Daryl stomach.

"Hey princess, what are you doing up so early?" Sophia giggled at the nickname and looked back over at her mother quickly. "Can we go and eat breakfast? Mommy always makes breakfast but she's extra tired today and she said to ask you."

Ah, well by the way Carol smiled at that, even with her eyes closed he could tell that she was awake. Well then, if she wanted to go back to sleep, he didn't mind dealing with Sophia for awhile. "Alrighty then little lady, let's go up and git us sum breakfast." Daryl said with a much exaggerated accent. Sophia enjoyed it though, so that wasn't for waste then. He stood up and picked up Sophia as well, hauling her over one shoulder and she shrieked with a giggly tone. He walked like that as Sophia giggled the whole way to the kitchen.

When they arrived, everyone looked up in their direction but Daryl found he couldn't really care. He flips Sophia back off his shoulder and into an empty chair. He then grabbed two plates for them and went over to the stove were T-Dog was cooking what appeared to be powered eggs and even pancakes. Eggs were scooped onto both plates and the back ground girl of a certain little girl shooting, "pancakes!" way louder than necessary in the morning, made him push most the eggs back onto his plate and fill hers up with pancakes instead.

He returned to sit beside her and watched as she dug in, after Lori helped her pour some syrup on the cakes. She looked extreme happy to be eating a normal meal and even more so to have something sugary at the same time. He was right there along with her, it was good to eat an actually meal again, even if the eggs were definitely powdered. After Sophia was done eating, her and Carl ended up following Lori to the game room, who had insisted that she could keep good watch over them because they were just going to play some board games. He ended up agreeing because he knew that Carol seemed to trust the other mother and would let Sophia go with her in a safe environment like this. Also, it might have had something to do with the coffee Rick had handed him, while Lori had been talking.

It had been way to long since a hot cup of coffee had been in his hands and he wanted to take his time and truly enjoy it. Which he did, even with Rick occasionally chatting beside him. Daryl didn't really know why Rick had decided to come and talk to him instead of Shane, though he easily could have found out about what Lori and Shane had been doing when he wasn't there. It was sad, he wasn't really sure what Rick's deal was and why he hadn't been there with them in the beginning but it had looked to him that he had simply been left behind while Lori moved on with Shane. Though Lori looked to be attached to Rick once he was there, maybe she had figured out that she didn't want to live without him, or some romantic shit like that.

Either way, Rick wasn't the best off in the world right now, his best friend kind of regretted that he was alive and his wife wasn't sure how to feel about him. When Daryl's coffee was mostly gone, he ended up turning to look and actually take in Rick. The man looked a bit sad, but otherwise content to be alive like everyone else. Under that, he could see that he was looking for friendship, because of how lonely he appeared to be. He'd never really had the opportunity to be friends with someone before, Merle had always chased everyone off and then introduced him to people like drug dealers. Not people he wanted of be around, being around Merle most times was bad enough. So, maybe he took his time and actually talked to Rick before Carol wandered in finally. Maybe he actually enjoyed someone talking to him like he wasn't restless scum. Just maybe.


	15. Chapter 15

**Author's Note: Hey are you tired of snow happening? Because I totally am, it's like weeks into spring and we were snowed in. Great, this snow all just needs to melt and then I want it to be about 10 degrees out or higher. Like normal spring weather. Anyway, there is drinking in the chapter and I wanted to try to write with those fuzzy details you get when your drunk. Like you don't take in everything, but seem to focus on just strange details. If you have to review I would absolutely love it! Thank you for taking the time for reading this far and I hope you continue reading!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything, why would I own the Walking Dead?**

The rest of the day had gone by like they were just one big family living in an apartment complex together. Living on top of each other and invading each other's privacies. It didn't matter though, everyone was just so thrilled to be safe and well rested that no one really cared that others just walked into their room while they were sleeping or shoved in to close to also be at the table. Then at night, the good doctor that had let them in had informed them that there was a very large stash of alcohol in the building.

When they found it they realized that there was more wine then they could drink in a week if they did nothing but drink and even a few other hard liquors mixed in. Adults had grabbed a bottle each and Carl and Sophia had ended up going to sleep in a room with Glenn, who said they would play games into the night and then just sleep. Daryl filed into his head just how nervous Glenn looked when they started pulling out bottles; he shrank away from them like he expected something bad to come out of that.

Daryl took a moment to think back about what he knew about Glenn; he had heard Glenn tell Merle he was Korean once, and he'd told Lori he delivered pizza after she had asked him if he was still in high school. He hadn't mentioned if he had, or even how old he was. Daryl found himself frowning at that, Glenn certainly didn't look old enough to be out of college, though Daryl was one to judge if he just didn't go, he hadn't either.

It ended up on his mind, and after just a few sips of wine, instead of being well on his way to smashed; he ended up bringing it up to Carol. "Glenn sure slunk away from alcohol." Carol looked at him with a quizzical look on her face, like she was sure if she wanted to answer. He watched her grab the bottle he'd been drinking from and take a large swallow from it. Yeah, they were classily drinking straight from the bottle, he bet Rick and Lori or Dale and Andrea were drinking from glasses. Waste of time.

"Shortly after showing up, when I had just had an incident with Ed, he brought me some bandages and water. We talked a tiny bit and he said in his family he'd be beat for anything less than 95 in high school, so he ended up graduating a year early and escaping from them." Carol looked sad while talking, probably thinking about what she had to go through and what Glenn no doubt had to live through.

Daryl placed a hand on her shoulder and she quickly leaned into it. In his mind he went over what was just said, that sounded to be much worse then he thought. Even he stuck around in his shitty childhood house and situation until everyone in his class went to college, before he struck to the road. Glenn had some major balls for having the guts to get out of there, or maybe it was just that bad. No more thoughts were had on the subject though, because he found himself smirking at a giggling and bubbly Carol. He had to wonder if this is what she had been like before Ed had destroyed her.

More was drunk in that night that he had when he used to go to bars occasionally, though it was wine and the wine probably wasn't as strong as whisky, he wasn't sure though, Daryl wasn't exactly sure of the alcohol percentage in wine. He'd never drank it before, and wasn't about to stop and check now. Maybe it was just Carol who was making him feel like he was drunk. She kept giggling and pressing small closed mouth kisses to the area around his mouth. It was hot, or was it just hot in the room? Either way shirts came off together and neither of them asked questions or even cared about the others scars. No one said anything about past or even the future; it was all right here, right now in the moment.

They ended up on the bed together in _their_ room. This was their life now; making out on a bed while they're daughter was out. No time to think of that right now though because more clothing came off, maybe even all the clothing was off. Things were already a bit fuzzy, maybe they shouldn't have opened a third bottle, though that one he was pretty sure hadn't been wine because he had crossed the line to drunk way faster at that point. Still, he traced lines with his lips down Carol's body and she rubbed her hands up and down him in return. He wasn't sure if what was happening could even be called sex, or if it would be more called getting to know the person you had found yourself loving. Is that what sex stood for?

Still as he grunted above her and placed his forehead against hers, he ended up thinking of what it would be like if it could be like this all the time. If the world wasn't shit outside this room, would she be open for another marriage? Would she even have left Ed for him? Though in this room, in this moment, it was love and it was all they had. So, as they reached the peak together, their eyes stayed locked together, voices molding together, lips brushing across the others.

After the fact, he watched and held carol as he rolled them over and she curled up on his chest. He couldn't remember a time when he had been happier, when his life had felt this complete. He fell asleep that night with a smile on his face, a mission on his mind about finding more about Glenn and finally a fleeting thought on if he got his hands on a ring and asked Carol, would she want to marry him?

His dreams all said yes.


	16. Chapter 16

**Author's Note: It's kind of starting to get to the end of the school year and my program is over after a year. I don't know what I'm going to do after this, or if I even want to move back to my home town or stay in the city I moved to last summer. At 18 am I supposed to think about the rest of my life, or should I try traveling? It's hard to picture staying in one place forever, but I can't picture leaving either. So many thinks to decide and now only a little time to do so; how do I move forward if I'm not ready to? Things are confusing at the moment. **

**On that note, the shows finished for this years and I'm really sad about that. I think this is going to be the last chapter, as I've decided to separate the seasons up, so that I don't have a dragging long story. Guess this just ended up being my version of season 1. Stay tuned for my version of season 2, I think I'm going to take a few weeks off before starting it, but don't worry it'll be up soon. Thank you to everyone who read this all the way through.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, not sure if I even want that to change?**

Daryl was the first to wake up, though it wasn't exactly a bad thing, even though he was sort of scared that he would wake her up if he moved, but he got to admire her in all her beauty. He also got some peace and quiet, which was great because his head was pounding. Maybe drinking so much had been a bad idea; he hoped she didn't think that he got her drunk so they could sleep together. That hadn't been the point at all; in fact he was kind of upset all he could remember was a few blurred instances.

As Carol started to stir, he kissed her forehead and was able to watch as she slowly opened her eyes and look at him, which also meant that he got to see her turn red and look away. It stung that she was too embarrassed to even look at him, and he wasn't sure what it meant. Neither party said anything for a good while before Daryl was finally able to break the ice, "Do you think last night was a mistake?" He wasn't ready to ask that question and certainly wasn't ready to hear the answer, but it still had to happen now or this whole thing (whatever this thing was) was going to be called off. Carol didn't answer, but at least she looked at him.

He took in those sad eyes, like she was scared for what was about to be said, like she was thinking about what had happened on the mornings she had probably woken up with Ed. He hoped that she wasn't, he couldn't stand being compared to a low life as Ed had been. She didn't answer like he wanted her to though, so instead he found himself talking instead, pouring his heart out and hoping that she'd cup her hands to catch it. "I don't think it was a mistake, though I didn't exactly mean for it to happen. I'll I got from our first time is fuzzy seconds and meshed together words that I just hope were said. I'll I can do is hope I told you you're beautiful, that you're amazing and wonderful and loving and caring and I care for you like I've never cared for anyone. That I think you're the one and I'm done with looking cause even for you say no I'm going to be done, because I'm never going to find this again."

Her eyes were watering when he finished, and she ended up clinging to him, burying her face into the croak of his neck. With water filled eyes, she kissed a trail from his neck, until their lips were touching. Even then, her hand dragged upward so that it rested on his cheek and she gave a brief smile as he nuzzled into that. "You're the best man I have ever met, and I never thought I'd like anyone the way I like you. I never thought that anyone would want me." He wiped away a tear that tried to slide its way down carol's face, and then placed a kiss to the top of her forehead. "I'll always want you." He found himself whispering into her ear, before their lips met once more, for a kiss that lasted a much longer time.

When they broke apart, they were smiling at one another. Though the peace was lost when a knock on the door came, and followed with a, "Mommy, Daryl, are you guys gonna get up soon? Me and Carl and Glenn are going to go eat breakfast now, but you can meet us there if you want." And then the child who could only be Sophia was gone, humming loudly done the hallway. The two laughed lightly together before sliding off the bed. (Carol wrapping herself in the blanket, taking it with her) Carol headed towards the washroom and Daryl just pulled on some clothes, he'd shower later, no reason to just wait out here and make her rush to be done. Not that he didn't truly want to go in there with her and take a shower with her and show her just how much he wanted her, but he also wanted to give her the space she needed and the time she needed. Which is why instead of joining her, he walked to the kitchen to join Sophia and the rest of the group.

Sophia waved frantically when he entered the room and patted the seat in one side of her. She had a mouth full of what appeared to be blueberry pancakes. Carl was sitting across from her and Glenn was manning the stove. The thought of having sugary pancakes on top of his hang over, turned his stomach for the worse. He quickly made the decision to not eat anything, but grab a cup of coffee instead. Back in the day, his personal hangover breakfast was black coffee and cigarettes. Today he'd just settle with coffee, besides having gone since the outbreak without a cigarette, he could pretty much count himself as having quit. Apocalypse brought a whole new meaning to intervention.

With that thought in mind, Daryl ended up thinking up about Merle. Would he have eventually run out and then sobered up? It hurt to know that if he had just lasted a little longer, that probably would have happened. He left that thought behind though, because Shane came in arguing with the kind doctor about what would happen if some clock timer thing would run out. Doctor said a whole bunch of shit that he barely listened to, because Sophia ad distracted him asking for more syrup. He caught the end though, because Rick and Shane both decided to yell at the doctor, "Why didn't you tell us that earlier? Do you really think we would have stayed?"

That didn't sound good, and it startled Sophia, which made her grab and grip tightly onto his arm. Her eyes were wide with fear, and he didn't blame her, because if he heard right, this whole place only had hours before it blew up.

After the conversation in the kitchen, he found himself picking up Sophia and making a panic dash to their room. Carol looked spooked when he suddenly flung open the door, but as he shortly explained the situation, she frantically started gathering the things that had been unpacked. It didn't take long for them and once everyone was packed, there was joint help at getting anything from the kitchen they could bring with them. On their way out, Daryl made sure to glare at the scientist, though he had said that e wasn't going to go with them, so he felt slightly bad about it. He saw Rick shake his hand; to close up with a man who would be dead in a few hours, just like what he had done with Jim.

They were on the road again, well rested and miserable with no idea to where they were gonna go in under an hour. Still as he looked over at Carol who was looking out the window blankly and Sophia who had fallen asleep and was now slumped against his shoulder, he couldn't help but smile. As long as he had his girls with him, he could do this. He'd fought harder for much less. With this family that he put together, this was totally doable. They could beat this shit-stand together.


End file.
